Business Apps

BB10 vs Android Development

Often I was asked, why I’m still developing business apps for BlackBerry 10.

Why not Android – even now where BlackBerry is providing a first Device powered by Android (BlackBerry PRIV) ?

I really like the PRIV giving me a great touch screen plus keyboard plus all the apps and services from Google Play with all the security by BlackBerry on top: unbeatable in the Android world.

If you need all these apps for your daily business: use the PRIV – it’s made for you and gives you the most secure Android Device. Of course I’ll also develop business apps for the BlackBerry PRIV.

If you need the most secure OS or Push Services inside secure BlackBerry infrastructure or Apps providing the smoothest way to follow your workflows: use a BlackBerry 10 Device.

The good news: you can manage and run all together from your BES12: Android, BlackBerry10, iOS, Windows 10, Android for Work, Samsung KNOX !

To give you some infos what kind of apps can be done with BlackBerry 10 you can take a look at BlackBerry World (search for ‘ekke’) – it’s the only reason why I’m publishing some apps there. Most of my business apps are ‘hidden’: they’re running on BES12 at small, medium or large Enterprise Companies worldwide.

To give you some first impressions I’ll blog about some of the native business apps I developed for customers or BlackBerry Partners. Stay tuned …

BB10 is all about Speed

BlackBerry 10 is built from ground for speed and smooth workflows to be as productive as possible esp. in Business Apps.

A good summary on this from CrackBerry by Bla1ze from an article comparing UX of Android (BlackBerry PRIV) and BlackBerry 10:

Speed – Losing the ability to fly through the OS quickly was something I was fully aware I was going lose going into the Priv. The ability to hop in and out of apps, switch windows, complete tasks, glance at the pertinent info and just get right down to business is intense on BlackBerry 10, and I’ve not yet been able to reach the same level on the Priv. I’m not saying it’s impossible on the Priv or Android in general; I’m just saying it that experience and speed were built into BlackBerry 10. On Priv, it’s going to take a bit more effort to get things set up the right way and customize the experience to get to the same point. BlackBerry had the pleasure of being able to create BlackBerry 10 from the ground up and build in those experiences. On Priv, they’re playing in someone else’s sandbox and those experiences have to be recreated.

This doesn’t help if you miss Apps important for your work on BB10 – then you should go with Android or iOS. But there are many use-cases and scenarios where missing Apps is not a problem and you should choose BB10 where possible to get the best performance. Perhaps my BB10 – Business – Apps – stories will help you to decide.

BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry Android Devices are brothers in respect of secure devices and both are great for small and big enterprises.

mobaDSL

While developing mobile Business Apps I recognized that there are many patterns to provide Offline-Cache, to access REST Services, to transform and bind data to UI and much more. So I developed a DSL (Domain Specific Language) based on Xtext and Xtend and this DSL will become Open Source next months. Read more at mobaDSL.

mobaDSL will speed up development of mobile business apps and will be available for native BB10, Android and iOS App Development. mobaDSL is not an App generator – it’s more like a toolbox / workbench to help you to avoid all the boring copy/paste stuff and to generate Entities, Data Transfer Objects, REST Services and more.